


if my heart was a house you'd be home

by bytheseas



Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Family, M/M, Moving In Together, One Shot, Tenderness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:27:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23982316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bytheseas/pseuds/bytheseas
Summary: Carlos asks TK to move in with him, and things don't go quite as he expected them to.Or, Carlos becomes a member of the Strand family, a little more officially.
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand
Comments: 25
Kudos: 242
Collections: 9-1-1 Lone Star Week





	if my heart was a house you'd be home

**Author's Note:**

> prompt for today was family: I get to start something new with you.

It’s their one year anniversary, and TK can’t remember ever feeling this happy or content in his whole life. He’s in a fancy restaurant for the first time since his misguided proposal, and this time, it feels right.    
  


He wishes he could show this scene to the version of him that had existed last year, but TK of the year previous probably wouldn't have believed him. He wouldn’t have believed how different his life is now. He has a team who feels like family. His dad is a better father than he has ever been. 

He has Carlos.

Carlos takes his hands, and looks at him, sweetly. 

_ God _ , he’s handsome.

“Move in with me,” Carlos says, and TK stares at him.

He won’t lie, he’s thought about this. They’ve talked about it too, vaguely, as a  _ someday _ kind of thing, but now, hearing the words, he hates the answer that he’s going to have to give:

“I can’t.”

Carlos swallows and looks away for a moment, and then his gaze is back. He tries to pull his hands back, but TK keeps hold of one of them, holding it tight. 

  
“No, don’t, it’s not -- I  _ want _ to. I need you to know that. You know I love you,” he rubs the top of the hand he’s holding with his thumb, back and forth. “But my dad -- he’s doing alright, for the most part, but he’s still getting treatments and some days are worse and I just can’t leave him to live alone, not right now. He’s been there when I needed him, and I need to be there for him.” 

Carlos nods. “I get it.”

“You’re not mad?” TK asks.

“I would never be mad about that. You’re taking care of your dad. I should have thought about that before I said anything,” Carlos is earnest, as he squeezes TK’s hand back. 

TK brings Carlos’s hand to his lips, kissing the top of it. “Someday.” 

Carlos smiles at him, if a little weakly. 

He’s disappointed, TK knows that he is, but he’s clearly trying to hide it. 

TK doesn’t know what he did to deserve him.

\---

“Okay, you’ve been staring into the distance for half an hour now. What is going on with you,” Owen sits down next to TK on the couch, and TK starts, surprised out of his little bubble of thought by his dad’s arrival.

“Oh, nothing, dad, I’m just tired,” TK yawns, to prove his point.

Owen ruffles TK’s hair and then leans back into the couch, settling in. “Yeah, I’m not buying that.”

TK runs a hand through his hair, and squirms in his seat. “Okay, it’s  _ not _ nothing.”

“Spill, son.” 

“I have an idea, and I don’t know how you’re going to feel about it,” TK falls silent but Owen just waits expectantly, so TK goes on: “How would you feel about having another roommate?”

Owen looks bemused. “Is there a puppy in a box somewhere? We already have Buttercup.” 

TK shakes his head. He takes a breath. “Carlos asked me the other day if I would move in with him, and I told him I couldn’t, not now, because you’re still getting treatments and there’s no way you’re living by yourself right now, but I was thinking about it and-”

Owen interrupts him with an indignant: “Son-”

TK holds up a hand. “Shut up and let me finish. I’m not leaving you here on your own. That’s non-negotiable. So if you say no I’m staying here and you won’t be able to get rid of me even if you try. But I was wondering what you thought about Carlos moving in here. You guys get along well, and I think you like him, and I just-” he cuts himself off from rabling. “What do you think.”

“I think it’s a great idea,” Owen tells him. “Wish I’d thought of it. I love that boy. We have more than enough space. If he wants to, he’s welcome. He’s family.” 

TK throws himself at his dad, tackling him in a hug. 

“Thanks, dad.” 

\---

Carlos is over for dinner that night. The three of them have been having a meal together once every week or so, with Owen and Carlos trading cooking duties. TK contributes by going on grocery runs, and taste testing and generally distracting both of them in the culinary process. 

It’s a hard job, but someone has to do it.

“This is so good,” Carlos tells Owen, as he digs into the lasagna. “I can never figure out why food tastes better when you’re not the one doing the work, but damn, it really does.” 

“You’re telling me,” Owen gestures towards his son with a flourish of his hand: “I tried to teach this one, but he’s hopeless.”

Carlos laughs. “I tried too. And he almost started a grease fire when I walked away for a minute. After that I decided it was too much of a fire hazard.”

“I’d like to make it known that this is  _ not _ fun for me,” TK grumbles, swinging a fork from his father to his boyfriend. “Not all of us can be skilled in the kitchen.” 

Carlos throws an arm around him, pulling him close enough to smack a kiss on his cheek. “We love you anyway.” TK melts into his embrace, despite himself. 

He’s going soft.

When Carlos walks back to the table with a dessert, TK looks at his dad and at the sight of his nod, he gets up. “Be right back. We have something for you.”

He comes back with a little box, and he presses it into Carlos’s hand, with a smile. “I was talking to my dad after our dinner the other night and….this is for you, if you want it.”   
  


Carlos opens the box, and looks down at the key, and then back at the Strands. “What is this?”

“We want you to move in here, if you’d like to,” TK tells him. 

Carlos looks at Owen, who nods. “You’re family,” the older man says. 

Carlos smiles and nods and he’s beaming when TK pulls him up and gives him a kiss, letting him go only so Owen can hug him close, patting him on the back.

When Carlos has to leave TK follows him outside the door. “I know this is not quite what you had in mind when you wanted us to take the next step,” he studies Carlos’s face. He seemed happy at the prospect, but TK wants to be sure this is definitely what his boyfriend wants. 

“Not quite, but that’s okay,” Carlos says. He steps into TK’s space, kissing him, winding his arms around him. “More than okay. I love your dad. I just want to be wherever you are.”

“You’re sure,” TK is serious. 

“Never been more sure of anything, mi amor.” 

TK sighs, a happy sigh. “Good.” 

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> [you can find me here](https://aziraphalescrowley.tumblr.com/)


End file.
